Vectrex news: 6/17/2012
Well, there's quite a few surprises with this edition of the Vectrex news for June 17! New Vectrex releases There has been quite a few surprises up FURY’s sleeve lately, as he suddenly announced his Hellhole: Sector-X IV game would not only be coming out on August 11, but it also works/comes with (if the purchaser orders it as well) a Vectrosis Spinner controller that he created! Ok, so backing up a bit here: originally those that know of FURY’s work and/or the Vectrex database will remember the name of Hellhole, which was originally going to be a 3D Imager game. This ended up being canceled since the game ran "too slow". This version is a "re-working of the original Hellhole"E-mail from George Pelonis., as well as to making this being FURY’s very first venture into creating hardware for the Vectrex. So this is pretty big news indeed! The game and controller will make their debut at the Classic Gaming Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada, U. S. A. New videos RetroGamerVX came up with a whopper of a video (40 minutes long! And that's just part 1!) in regards to discharging the CRT of a Vectrex (very important to do, lest a person could receive a pretty nasty shock if they were to touch the wrong thing inside a Vectrex), repairs of the unit, etc. There was also a review of the Light Pen (possibly the only one on YouTube) by Gamester81, YouTube user azah2009 made two brief videos of his homemade multicart (one can be seen here and the other can be seen here), and there was another brief animation video from gliptitude, showing what Iron Man might look like if he appeared on the Vectrex! (Ok, so that’s what it looks like to us anyhow.) New/updated wiki pages A hardware page was put up in regards to specifics of the Vectrex. A bunch of silly Vectrex poems and a new poll on what conditions you play your Vectrex under were also created. And originally a stub for over a year, the Gravitrex Plus page became a full-length entry recently, plus a review of the cart/games will be coming next week as well. The Vectrex gets reborn! Ok, not physically, as in a new one, but still, this is better than nothing. Way back in the February 1, 2011 edition of the Vectrex news, a website had been found called Vintage Trademarks, announcing that there would be a rebirth of the system, which was originally slated for 2006, but financial backers couldn’t be convinced of this project being worthwhile in creating, which would have been a “joystick with Vectrex Games”-type of unit (as reported by Julien from Data Access via e-mail), like the many plug and play pieces out there, which was slated for 2011, but obviously that didn’t happen either. Well, now here in 2012, not only had I received a follow-up e-mail from Julien several weeks ago, but I was contacted by the Vectrex Regeneration team (aka Rantmedia Games) as well not long after that, as this product is finally coming to fruition, although as an app for iPhones. Here’s what can be expected: *All original Vectrex game overlays *Working with indie developers to get new games on board (Clay Cowgill asked in a reply on their promotional video if they wanted Moon Lander on it) *Play the games on a TV *Use an iPhone(s) as a controller *"Game center", allowing players across the planet to compete against each other *''iCade'' compatible *Retina graphics *Auto-fire for many of the games Well, it’s about time, after all these years. More news on this later as it emerges! Stands and more stands A rare Vectrex stand appeared on e-bay recently (note: a while after auctions end, they disappear, hence there will not be a link to it), plus pictures of a homemade Vectrex stand appeared on the May 23 edition of the news on VectrexMad!'s site. The controller is modified for variable firepower as well. (This needs to be made into a video!) Well, until next time, that's about as much of Vectrex news for a person to be able to "stand" (har)! References Category: Vectrex news Category: Vectrex games Category: Homebrew Category: Homebrewer Category: Hardware Category:Vectrex events